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| Julie Meyers, a registered dietitian serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. |
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 | By Jerry Jackson
Courier columnist |
The needs are great, both near and far. First, let's look at the "near," which is in our own backyard and which focuses on Open Door's Weekend Family Food Program.
Prescott's Open Door, which operates under the umbrella of the Coalition for Compassion and Justice (CCJ), since 2001 has been providing low-income families and the homeless with nutritious meals, food boxes, clothing and other services.
According to its director, Diane Iverson, over the past year it has experienced a 100-percent increase in clients using its services, with the greatest increase being among families with children. As demand for emergency food assistance continues to rise, she said, children 0-5 are particularly at risk for malnutrition, and research shows that even moderate under-nutrition in young children can impair cognitive development as well as educational performance.
To alleviate the problem, Iverson has commissioned the help of Julie Meyers, a registered dietitian serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer, to oversee the aforementioned program.
Meyers, a former New Yorker who spent 11 years in Seattle prior to coming to Prescott, says that thanks to a grant awarded by First Things First, this winter Open Door is providing more than 350 low-income Prescott-area families with weekly bags of nutritious food and baby supplies, and through the Weekend Family Food Program is reaching out to area preschools as well as to families with 0-5-year-old children already using Open Door services.
Because of the large number of children and families the program will serve, however, the financing will not last more than one to two months, so in order to extend the program for as long as possible, she is seeking donations of money and nutritious food.
"We are particularly interested in foods not requiring refrigeration," she said, "such as oranges, apples, unsweetened oatmeal, raisins, tuna, peanut butter, canned chicken and whole grain products as well as baby food, diapers and supplies." And, she added, "We are also in need of volunteers to help deliver the bags to area preschools."
It's a beehive of activity there at Open Door's headquarters at the Prescott United Methodist Church, 505 W. Gurley St., so anyone interested in lending a hand in the effort is invited to check in with Meyers there. Monetary contributions can be forwarded to the church, with checks made out to CCJ with a notation to "Weekend Family Food Program" on the memo line.
Moving along to the aforementioned "far" reference, the need for help to survivors of the earthquake in Haiti is overwhelming. Many groups and organizations are responding to the crisis, among them being the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). One hundred percent of the donations to that organization will go to serving the need, in that the administration is set up so that none of the money goes to the administration of the money.
Pastor George Cushman of the Prescott United Methodist Church said that contributions can be made in either of two ways. First, checks can be made out to the church at 505 W. Gurley St., Prescott, AZ 86301, with "Advance #418325" or simply "Haiti Relief" noted in the memo field for forwarding to UMCOR, or, second, made out to UMCOR at P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068, again with "Advance #418325" or "Haiti Relief" in the memo field.
Our help in both of the designated "near" and "far" crises will mean a lot to the recipients. Can we lend a (check-writing) hand?
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